


Bugger off Brits

by Amelia_Claw



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-14
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2018-08-14 23:28:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 17,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8033194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amelia_Claw/pseuds/Amelia_Claw
Summary: This is what happens when Harry finally realizes what is wrong with the wizarding world after Cedric's death. Harry runs away (With Sirius) story.





	1. Chapter 1

Harry sighed as he leaned back in his horrible bed. All he could think of was Cedric, and the horrible flash of green light. 

He had nothing to get his mind off it, either. It was only two weeks into the summer, and he had already done all of his homework. His friends were mailing him, but the letters were so full of lies, that Harry just gave them a courtesy glance, then changed Hedwig's papers. The only person who wasn't feeding him lies was Sirius, and he seemed as if he was writing through a curse keeping him from telling Harry anything useful.

He was starting to wonder if his friends were really friends, or just people who pretended to be friends for money. Quite a few things were suspicious to him. For example, how Ron's family had the money to go to Romania in his first year, when Ron was constantly complaining about how poor he was. Harry, therefore decided to make a list of everything that had gone wrong, so he could send it to Sirius. If there was anyone who could get him out of this house, it would be one of the legendary Marauders. Unfortunately, Harry didn't quite trust Remus at the moment, as it wouldn't have been that hard to send him a letter before they had met- Sirius could do it, and he was a wanted criminal! Also, Remus hadn't contacted him ever since they had parted in his office at the end of third year. He pulled out a piece of paper, actual paper, not parchment, and a pen and began writing.

Hogwarts

First year

~ Letter was addressed to CUPBOARD UNDER THE STAIRS, yet nobody cared 

~ no information on how to get on to the train in first year

~staff is horrible (Snape, Trelawnely, Quirrell, and Binns, excreta.)

~Headmaster brought the Philosopher’s stone into the castle, bait for people who wanted (almost everyone who knew what it could do. Aka Ron)

~TWELVE FOOT MOUNTAIN TROLL in the castle, and 11 year olds found it before teachers

~ Eleven year olds sent out into the forest for something that could kill unicorns

~a DEADLY dog behind a door that could be unlocked by a first year spell

~an ELEVEN year old was forced to kill a possessed teacher (once again, not stopped by the wards)

~Slytherin was given the cup, just to have it taken away, just seconds later (Yes, I'm felling sorry for them, just this once)

~No counseling ever given

 

Second year

~solid brick wall, forcing the flying car incident

~Incompetent DADA professor (Lockheart)

~Riddle's diary made it past the wards.

~nobody realized Ginny was possessed

~Basilisk was loose and wards\ Headmaster never knew

~Only a 12 year old realized what it was

~Falsely accused of being the “Heir of Slytherin”

~school wasn't closed after the first petrification

~ never sent to hospital wing after fighting a giant poisonous snake

~Attacked by adult minutes after I leave Headmaster's office (Malfoy Sr)

~ No counseling ever given

Third year

~ Incompetent professor (Trelawnely)

~nobody ever noticed that Petigrew was there

~dementors attacked the Quidditch game

~Sirius was never given a trial, and there was no real evidence (Nothing but a cleanly cut finger, and a ripped robe? Seriously! Any trained investigator could tell you that was a fake!)

~Snape knew that night was the full moon, but didn't bring the potion

~Lupin nearly attacked us

~Fudge ordered Sirius' execution without giving him a chance to talk

 

Fourth year

~ Moody was a fake the entire year, and nobody noticed (he is Dumbledore’s friend, and he didn't notice.)

~forced into DEADLY tournament that I didn't sign up for

~ used dragons that could kill for the first task (was the objective to kill everyone?)

~people were put into the lake without their consent

~Portkey was able to activate from the grounds

~Wasn't sent straight to the hospital wing after last task

~Cedric died 

 

Other Occurrences

~ Have to live with the Dursleys

~Dobby and the Pudding incident was blamed on me

~Skewed sense of justice in wizard government (Fudge & and floating Marge incident)

~Death eater attack at World Cup

~ I was blamed for the Mordemorse (Um, I was the one who killed Volde. Why would I do it?

~ no paper or pens (which are much better then parchment and quills)

~NOBODY IS TELLING ME WHAT IS GOING ON!

Why all of this? What should I do?  
Harry 

 

Harry folded up the paper and put it in an envelope, then gave it to Hedwig. “For Sirius, girl” he told her quietly. She clacked her beak, nibbled a finger, then grabbed the envelope and flew off.

 

Three days later he got a response. It read:

 

Harry,  
I wish you had told me this earlier. I could of helped. Yesterday I contacted a friend of mine in the Magical Congress of the United States of America. She is going to try to get us both political asylum. That would mean the British wouldn't be able to touch us, I would get a trial, and you would never have to be with the Dursleys again. However, it is a bit hard to do this under Dumbledore's nose. You have a guard on you, and the shift changes every three hours. Tomorrow at 9, the guard is a worthless chap named Mudungus. If you can wait five minutes, then sneak out of the house, Dung will be asleep. I will meet you in the park were I first meet you. Then I will explain more.   
Good luck Progslet  
Sirius

 

Harry waited for the next day anxiously. He was afraid that Sirius would be caught, and sent back to Azkaban. That would ruin everything.

Fortunately, 9 o'clock came without any issues, and at five past, Harry put on his invisibility clock and snuck off into the night.

 

"Hey Harry" a voice rasped through the darkness of the park as he took off his cloak.  
Harry started, and spun around towards the swings, reaching for his wand. That was where he saw his godfather sitting. "Hello Sirius. What did I save you with the last time I saw you?" he questioned, wanting to be sure of his identity.

Sirius barked a laugh "A hippogriff. Good job Harry. Always make sure people are who you think they are. What was your father?"

"My father was a stag animagus called Prongs and a Marauder. What did you want to talk about?"

"Not here, it's not safe enough. Grab my arm." Harry did as asked, and then was sucked through what felt like a straw.

When they came out of the straw, they were in front of a little white cottage surrounded by fields. "Where are we, and what was that?" Harry asked.

"This was my little house after I graduated. Officially, it belonged to James, and I didn't live here when I worked for the ministry, so nobody knew this was someplace I would go. That was something called Apparition, the ability to disappear and reappear at will. In Britain, it's taught at age 17, in America, 16, though in the US, there are a lot more rules until you have been doing it for a year." he said with a grin.

"So no one knew you lived here?" Harry asked. "And there is another reason to go to America." he joked.

"Only James and Lily." he said, smiling at Harry, and lead him inside the fancy looking house.

The inside was a normal house, but with a strange lack of dust. Also, everything looked clean and livable. "Is this where you've been staying?" Harry asked, as it didn't look like it was abandoned for 12 years.

Sirius laughed "No, but there are charms to keep it in good condition. I just wish my mother had done that to the family house before she died, old bat." he grumbled. Harry looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "My mother hated me, and I her. As she was dying, while I was in Askaban, she did everything she could to make things hard for me, if I ever got out. The Black house is filled with all sorts of unpleasing things that I now have to deal with." he said, sitting on the couch in the living room, Harry sitting beside him.

"Why didn't you just move here?" Harry questioned.

"I can't tell you, but you remember what Dumbledore was talking about in the infirmary at the end of the year?" Sirius asked.

"About gathering people to fight Voldemort, right? Talking to old friends of yours, who believe you." Harry said, and Sirius nodded stiffly. "And there is a spell on you preventing you from saying more to nonmembers, who don't know about it, right?"

"Correct."

"So what can you say?" Harry asked.

"Well, it existed before. Dumbledore leads it and can veto anything, including letting underage people know. It tries to defeat Voldemort."

"So, a super secret spy agency sorta thing, or a super secret military thing?" Harry asked

"A bit of both really, and I can't tell you any more."

"Well, I think I understand. Is that why Hermione and Ron can't tell me anything either?"

"Yes. Do you really want to get away from all of this, and go to America?" Sirius asked.

"Definitely- you saw my list. Why wouldn't I want to leave?" Harry said, surprised.

"Your friends?"

"Hermione, I'll miss. Ron has betrayed me several times now, and I don't know if I can forgive him for it. I don't know about him."

"Well, maybe we can bring Hermione after we've gotten settled down, there. I've talked to my American friend, and she got us the political asylum, and me a trial. She has also enrolled you in an American school, in California. The only thing that is bad, is the American Magical President requested to meet you."

"I can deal with that, as they are helping us, as long as we aren't swarmed by reporters and photographers."

"I'll see if I can make sure that won't happen." Sirius promised. "The friend got us a flight out of the UK on a military plane, so we aren't intercepted by anyone, or thing, trying to stop us. The flight leaves in three days, and we will be with some injured magical marines, so there isn't a random military plane taking trip to Britain for no reason. Try to make it look like you aren't packing, ok? And don't bother packing your muggle clothes, we can get you some new ones."

"Thanks Sirius!" Harry exclaimed.

"We have to go back now, Harry, or people are going to realize we are gone."

"It's 10:30 at night, who will notice?"

"The people keeping me locked inside my own house." he said, then grabbed Harry's arm, and they were sucked back into the straw.

They reappeared back at the park bench. "I'll see you in three days, Harry. Meet here at 5 am, and then we can go from here." Sirius said.

"Thanks again, Sirius."

"I wanted to get out of here, anyway. You are just giving me more of a reason." he said with a grin. "Bye Prongslet. I'll be following you home, ok?"

"Bye Padfoot." Harry said, then swung his cloak over his shoulders, then walked off, a black dog following.


	2. chapter 2

Chapter 2

Harry spent the next two days slowly packing. Fortunately, he had a good strategy. First, he dumped his entire trunk out, supposedly to clean it, and got rid of all the random things that had appeared in there over time. He then made it look like he was doing his homework, and as he finished a subject, put all of the books of that subject neatly in. After he finished the homework he was never going to turn in, he organized his small amount of potions supplies, after leaving a few pickled bat's eyes in the sink for his aunt to find. Next, he folded the robes he had bought the year before, and picked the Gryffindor crest off of the best of them. He cleaned and ironed his uniform pants, shirt, and sweater to wear when he was going to America, as none of them had the Hogwarts crest on them. On top of the clothes, he put all of the things he hadn't already packed, that he wanted to keep. After all of this, his room was much cleaner, and as long as the trunk's lid stayed up, it didn't look like he was going anywhere. To add to this, he brought the vacuum up, to make it look like he was just cleaning, which Hedwig didn't appreciate.

As nobody from the wizarding world came up to yell at him (though Petunia did), he assumed he was good. However, his next problem was how he was going to sneak out of the house with his trunk and Hedwig, as his cloak didn't cover it all if he was under as well. Fortunately, Harry got a letter from Sirius the next day. It said:

Harry,  
I have talked to a few people, and we are doing good here. The person you met Friday will see you tomorrow. I hope I will see you soon, Prongslet.  
Padfoot.

Harry assumed that the trip was a go, and that Mudungus would be the one on shift Monday morning. That meant, as long as he was quiet about it, he could sneak out with little problems, other then waking his aunt. She was the only person in the house that was a semi light sleeper.

The next morning, Harry woke before the sun was up, excited to escape. He had an hour before he needed to meet Sirius, so he made sure he had everything he needed, then let Hedwig out of her cage, so she didn't have to go in the plane with him. He had talked to her, and she had indicated that she wanted to fly herself to America. Sometimes, he wondered if magical owls were smarter then normal ones, as Hedwig was definitely not normal, if the research he had done was correct.

At quarter until 5, Harry quietly snuck out of the house, and to the park, with his slumbering guard unaware he ever left. He walked to the park, where he found his godfather waiting.

“Hello Harry. What type of plane did I say we were going on when I last saw you?” he questioned.

“Hi, Sirius. It was a military plane. What is your animagus, and what do you call it?” Harry replied.

“Padfoot, it's a huge black dog, often mistaken for a grim. Are you ready to abandon this horrid place.” he asked, walking over to Harry.

“Why wouldn't I be?” Harry asked, tightening his grip on his trunk as Sirius put his hand on his shoulder.

“Good.” Sirius said shortly, and they were sucked into the straw again.

They came out on a dark airfield, which was filled with intimidating looking planes. Harry didn't know much about planes, as with most other muggle electronic things, as wizardry prevented him from learning about it. However, he did know that the planes around him looked different then the ones people would see on a daily basis. The one light in the dark airfield was coming from an open plane, which Sirius lead Harry to.

"Hello Black, Potter." A tall man in a uniform said as they walked closer.

"Good morning, sir." Harry said.

"It's a good day for a flight, climb on." the man said. According to his uniform, he was Sargent Booth.

The inside of the plane was smaller then it looked. There were uncomfortable looking gray benches on either wall, with large orange netting covering them that didn't disguise their hardness. One and a half of the benches were taken by obviously injured men in uniforms, and the rest was empty. Sirius lead lead Harry to the empty area, and they both sat down and slowly figured out how to put the complected seat belt on.

The flight was loud, bumpy, and for Harry, a lot of fun. Sirius, not so much. They got hit with a lot of turbulence, which was easy for Harry, but Sirius hadn't been in a broom in years. Sirius spent most of the flight trying not to throw up, to the visible amusement of the soldiers.

The long flight ended with a jarring touchdown in an airport in Washington, D.C. They stretched, then followed the marines out of the plane to find a government car waiting for them. Harry eyed the car suspiciously, but a tall blonde woman who was about the same age as Sirius stepped out and waved at them. Sirius waved back "Amber! Long time no see!" he greeted excitedly.

"Why do I find myself pulling you out of yet another mess?" she asked dryly as the airport workers pulled their luggage out of the plane's cargo area and put in the car.

"Because you want to show that America is better then Britain, once again?" he asked.

She laughed "A bit, but mostly for justice. How are you?" she asked

"Decent, for living in Askaban for living so long. I'm surprised I didn't go insane, like some relations I could mention."

"So am I. I'm going to assume this is Mr. Potter?" She asked, looking at him.

He gulped "Yes, ma'am."

"Don't ma'am me, my name is Amber, use it." she told him, smiling.

"Okay, Amber." he said nervously.

"Ok, we need to meet a few people to schedule Sirius' trial, and put you in our protection system. Also, the Magical President want to talk to both of you. Lastly, we need to talk to the Principal of your new school, and get a few things sorted out." she told them as she walked back to the car. She slid into the drivers seat, and Sirius sat in the other passenger seat, leaving Harry to sit in the back, with some of their stuff.

They drove for about a half an hour, the adults catching up the entire time, when they arrived a large, white marble building. What was strange about it, was that muggles could see it, and to Harry's knowledge, it wasn't hidden in any way by magic, as he didn't notice the slight tingling sensation he got when he looked at most other magical buildings.

Amber saw his strange look and laughed. "It's hidden in plain sight. There are so many governmental things in D.C. that nobody notices another."

"Nobody's noticed? Ever?"

"There's a few that do notice, but they are fed a rather bland politician like cover story." she said with a smirk, and Sirius laughed.

"And do you get to tell them that story?" the animagus said, chuckling.

"Sometimes." she admitted

Laughter rang through the car as they parked, and Sirius was still snickering when they walked towards the rather impressive building. Amber lead them to the security checkpoints, and once they were through those, to a large office door. She knocked "Sir, it's Amber, with the Black and Potter cases." she called through the door.

"Come in." a deep voice answered.

She opened the door, and walked in, motioning for Harry and Sirius to follow. The man inside was tall, with dark graying hair, and had the air of a politician. He stood up at their arrival, and when they walked up towards his desk, they shook his hand.

"Now, about your innocence, and trial," he started, smiling thinly.


	3. Chapter 3

“We are more then happy to help you. The Magical Congress of the United States of America has been waiting for years to find something to shove in the British Ministry of Magic's face. In an hour, there will be an official trial, to invalidate things. I am Agent Spennor.” he said.

“Hello, Agent. I am Sirius Black. Do you know what happened?”

“Yes, I have received your case file, and have reviewed it. What I am wondering is why you decided to bring Mr. Potter along.” he said “Not that we're complaining.”

“I sent him this.” Harry handed the man a typed version of his list, that he had stolen Dudley computer to make. “It should give you the reason.” he had taken the few sarcastic comments out, but mostly left it the same.

The man read the entire thing in a few minutes, his eyebrows rising with every sentence. “I see why you left now. I am both of your caseworker, and I can tell you, no matter what happens with Mr. Black, you will have a place in this county, Mr. Potter.”

Harry smiled, yet looked up at Sirius, hoping he would go through this without his new found guardian. “Thank you, sir.” he said.

“Ms. Chaperon, I assume you will have them ready for the trial at 10:30? he asked.

“Yes sir.” she responded

“Good. You are dismissed.” he said, then they left the office.

“And that was my Boss.” Amber said once they were out of sight.

“Seeing that he is helping free me, I'm obligated to say that he wasn't that bad.” Sirius said

“You don't have to deal with him almost everyday.”

“Point.” Sirius grimaced. “So after the trial, what do we do?”

“We talk to the Magical President as we are leaving the trial or after, if he is busy. He probably will be here, though, as this is a rather big thing, even for a large country. After that, we meet Harry's new principal.” 

“And after that, we go collapse in some hotel and sleep off the jet lag?” Sirius asked. Harry didn't blame him, their day sounded exhausting and large. 

“Incorrect, your house near the school, in California, is already set up. I think you'll like it, it's pretty large.”

“You've been there?” Harry asked, curious.

“Yes, as I’ll be staying there until everything is settled, as a guard. Don't even think of complaining that I shouldn't have to. It's my job, though I usually don't stay in the  
house, I usually stay outside. It was decided, however, that as I know Sirius, that I should stay inside, as it's a lot more inconspicuous.” she explained, leading them through a maze of corridors until they got to an office with her name on it. “Now, onto the trial. All you have to do is tell they truth, and if they asked to use Veritaserum, agree. You have nothing to hide, right?”

“Not unless they want to learn who the Marauders were.” he said with a grin.

She laughed “They probably won't” she said as there was a knock at the door. “Come in.” she called.

“Hello, Ms. Chaperon” a blonde man in a suit with a briefcase said. “My name is Mr. Johnson and I'm your lawyer for the trial, Mr. Black. This should be fairly straight forward,  
as the MCUSA wants to give this to you as long as you are innocent.”

“That's good. I did have the standard Black training, though, so I know how to deal with situations like this.”

“I like it when my cases don't need babysitting.” he said with a chuckle. “I will also work for Mr. Potter, should he need it.” he informed them.

“Thank you.” Harry piped up, as he had stayed silent for most of the time.

“It's my job, I get paid to do it, don't thank me.” he smiled. 

“Thank you nonetheless” Sirius said. “Both of you.”

“Why are you thanking me? I 'm your friend, I'd do this any day of the week if it meant keeping you out of Askaban. Nobody deserves to be there.” she shuddered.

“I'm going to have to agree with you there.” he replied in a feverent tone. 

Suddenly, Amber's computer binged “I wonder who wants something.” she muttered as she spun her chair to face it. It automatically pulled something Harry couldn't see up,  
and she gasped. “Mr. President wants to see you now, instead of later. You ready?”

“Um. Not really. But I'll do it anyway.” Harry replied nervously.

“Good. Come on.” she said, then lead them deeper into the building.

They stopped at a large, rather ornate, wooden door. There was a secretary sitting in a desk right outside said door. “Go on in, he's waiting.” she said. Amber slowly walked to the door and opened it, and walked in, with everyone else following, even Mr. Johnson, the lawyer. 

The inside of the office was just as ornate as the outside. The walls were a cream color, and the rest of the office varied. There was a large wooden desk in the center of the  
large room, surrounded by full bookshelves. On top of the desk was a closed, new looking laptop, surrounded by neat piles of paperwork. In front of the desk were a few chairs, and the President stood behind the desk. Amber walked over to the desk, and hey followed. “Go ahead, sit down.”he said in a deep voice as he followed his own advice. 

The President was a rather tall, tan man, with graying black hair. He looked rather intimidating, yet was also excluding a paternal aura. “I wanted you to come here early so I could hear you entire story, without interruptions. Well, with less interruptions then if we did it after.” he said. “As President, there is always interruptions.” he chuckled.

Harry smiled “Do you want the short version or the long version?”

“As much of it-” he checked a clock “That you can fit in an hour.”

“Ok.” said Harry “it started by..”

45 minutes later

“Wow.” The President said, shocked. “I got briefed on what happened, but wasn't told the full details. I can tell you now that no matter what, we will take both of you. We just have to do the trial for legitimacy.” 

“And so I can have Veritaserum so you can shove the fact I was innocent the entire time in Britain's faces.” Sirius said dryly.

“Mainly Fudge, Bagnold, and Crouch's, but yes.” the President said, chuckling. “Nobody in MACUSA likes them, anyway, so to have something like this, they would say you are innocent even of you weren't, probably.” he said with a sigh. “No government is completely incorruptible, you just have to try to keep the numbers low. Now, I think your trial starts soon, so we better go to that.” he said to Sirius.

“That would probably be a good idea, sir.” he said, and the President laughed. They all walked out the door, with a bunch of men surrounding them the minute they did. All of those men where in red uniforms, and none of them, like everyone else Harry had seen today, they weren't wearing robes. Amber and the guards lead the way to the courtroom, with everyone surrounding the President, forcing other people to get out of their way.

The courtroom had yet another ornate wooden door, except the courtroom's door was much bigger. The doors were wide open, with more red uniformed men standing at attention beside them. The room was paneled in a reddish wood, and all of the furniture was the same wood. Right beside the door were rows of benches, with a walkway down the middle. At the front of the benches was a short divider with a gate that separated the benches from the rest of the room. In the other half of the room there was another sectioned of area filled with comfortable chairs, for the jury, Harry assumed. Against the wall opposite the door were two desks, and facing the desks there were two tables, which also had wooden chairs. Beside the desks was a closed off small desk, with a microphone in front of it.

Harry took that in very quickly as Amber lead them inside, and sat on one of the benches, and as he walked next to her, she grabbed him, and made him sit too. “We sit here.” she said quietly. “Sirius and his lawyer sit up at one of those tables, and the person against them sits at the other. The president sits at one of those desks when he is here, and the judge sits at the other. The person currently trying to prove his point sits at the small desk beside them. The other section is taken by the jury.”

“Will there be a representative for Britain here?” Harry said.

“Unless the ambassador hears about it and comes, no. That is unlikely, though. He never does anything, except for when he makes things worse for your country.”

“I'm going to assume Fudge appointed him.” Harry said.

“Correct.” She said as the Judge walked in and sat in her desk beside the President. “Now, be quiet. We don't want to get yelled at, ok?” she asked as the Jury started filing in.

“Ok.” he whispered back, and leaned back in the hard bench.

“Case 1945, Sirius Black vs. British Ministry of Magic. Charges are: unlawful imprisonment, and use of cruel and unusual punishments.” a man announced.

“Where is the BMOM representative?” the judge asked.

“He was informed.” the man side. “He said he couldn't come, but gave me a stack of evidence to use against Black.”

“Did you tell him he couldn't do that?” the judge asked.

“Yes, but he ordered me to do it anyway.”

“As the evidence was not delivered personally to a judge from his hands, I have to declare it contaminated.” she declared. Harry could have sworn she was smiling slightly, barely a twitch of the lips. “Ok, evidence for the crime.” she said.

“My client wishes to present the evidence himself, and requests to use Veritaserum.” Mr. Johnson announced, as gasps rang through the courtroom.

“Very well. Mr. Black to the stand, and Veritaserum is to be brought.” the Judge announced, and Sirius stood up. The man who had announced the cases earlier brought the Veritaserum, and it was tested in a small bowl, then declared good. The man gave Sirius the dose, and the judge asked him to start from the original incident. By the time he was done, and the Veritaserum wore off, the entire court was shocked. Sirius was quickly declared innocent, and they were both given asylum. They walked out of the room with grins on their faces, after thanking the Judge and Mr. Johnson.

“What's next?” Harry asked.

“First, we Portkey to California, then we stop at your new house, and drop off your things, then I have arranged to meet your headmistress at a nearby restaurant for lunch.”  
Amber said. “Then we go back to your house, and relax.”

“Good.” Sirius said, as Amber lead them back towards the front of the building, where they had entered. 

“This is the Portkey room.” she said, leading them into a room right beside the entrance. It was a large room, with a desk and a board looking official the only other things in the room. Amber walked over to the man and he handed her something, and she walked over to the middle of the room, with Sirius and Harry following. She held her hand out, and Sirius reached out to touch the gold ball that was their Portkey, but Harry winced away. He didn't see the large white room in front of him, and instead saw a dark, creepy cemetery.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the last chapter:  
> “This is the Portkey room.” she said, leading them into a room right beside the entrance. It was a large room, with a desk and a board looking official the only other things in the room. Amber walked over to the man and he handed her something, and she walked over to the middle of the room, with Sirius and Harry following. She held her hand out, and Sirius reached out to touch the gold ball that was their Portkey, but Harry winced away. He didn't see the large white room in front of him, and instead saw a dark, creepy cemetery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4

“Harry.” Sirius called. Harry felt something rest on his shoulders, but he still was seeing the bubbling cauldron of doom, as he often called it, whenever he had to think about it. “Harry!” Sirius yelled.

Harry shook his head. He blinked, and he was back in the large, white portkey room- not being tortured by Tommy. “Sorry” he said, ducking his head, face flushed.

“What was that?” Sirius asked “Are you ok?”

“It was a flashback. I don't like portkeys. And it's gold, which doesn't help. I wasn't expecting it, or I could of stopped it.”

“You saw...” Sirius said, as Amber marched over to the desk, and got into a low argument with the man at the desk.

“Yes.” Harry said, embarrassed that he had done that in front of people. In front of Sirius he would be less abashed, but Amber, and the man, was very embarrassing. 

“I am so sorry Harry, that you had to go through that.” Sirius said, wrapping his arm around Harry. “No one should have to. You have gone through more then anyone every has to. It's just another thing to blame Dumbledork for.”

Harry snorted “Dumbledork?” 

“I have had little to do lately, other then come up with insulting nicknames.”

“What's another one?” Harry asked as Amber walked back over.

“Dumb-bull-door” he said, over accenting it, to show the different words.

Amber snorted “Really, Sirius?”

“Of course I'm Sirius, who else would I be?” he said, grinning.

Amber just groaned, and opened her hand to show a red piece of paper. “This work for you Harry?”

“Yeah. Thanks.” he said.

“Of course. If I knew, I would of made sure it was something else. It starts in a minute. Grab on.” she said, and they all did. A few seconds later, the were twirled off to the  
west.

The first thing that hit Harry was the heat. Back in D.C., it was about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. In California it was at least 100 degrees, if not higher. The second was the scenery. They were standing in front of a large light blue house with white accents. The house was on top a huge cliff, with waves crashing into a beach at the bottom. In the opposite direction, past the house, was a forest. The trees were at least a half a mile away, but Harry could still tell that they were larger and taller then any other tree he had ever seen.

“Wow.” he said.

“I'm going to agree with you there, pup. This is the house you got for us!” Sirius exclaimed.

“This property has been under wizards control for centuries. There is a muggle repealing ward, and it wouldn't be a good thing if it suddenly went away because we couldn't find anyone to live here, and the people who have been in this area their entire lives could come here. The last owner died a few years ago, and his children have been keeping the place up, but none of them wanted it. They were more then happy to sell. They were tired of keeping it up, so you got it for cheaper then it normally would have been.” Amber explained.

“How much time do we have before we have to leave?” Harry asked.

“A hour.” Amber told him. “But the plans changed. There was something at the school that Principal Jennings needed to attend to, so she will met us here then.”

“When did this happen?” Sirius asked, perplexed.

“She texted me while I was arguing with Simmons, the portkey man.” Amber said.

“You have magical cell phones! But technology doesn't work around magic!” he said, momentarily forgetting about the phone in her office.

“Britain is stuck in the 17th century. America isn't.” Amber grinned “Plus, we all rely on technology to do everything here, we don't really use owls all that much. Well other then the 'traditional ways are the best' purebloods that think they are the second coming of Merlin.”

“You have those too? And I thought this country was so much better.” Harry groaned.

Amber laughed “They are mostly the older politicians. You shouldn't run into any of them at your school.”

“Good.” Harry said. “Can we go inside now?” 

“Of course.” Amber said. “Sirius, you want to do the honors?”

“Why wouldn't I?' he asked as Amber gave him the key, and he lead the way up the three stairs to the porch. He inserted the key into the large wooden door, and turned it. He slowly pushed the door open. “Wow” Sirius said.

“I know.” Amber said as the three of them walked in. The entry room was a small paneled redwood room with shelves for shoes, and hooks for coats. There was an open doorway that lead into a futuristic living room. The walls, chairs, and couches were all white, with stainless steel shelving filled with little trinkets and tables. There was a white cabinet under a black television.

“Holy..” Sirius said. “This is ours?”

“You are very rich, Sirius. Your parents never officially disinherited you, legally. You just didn't live with them.”

“But they blasted my name off the wall!”

“That wasn't official. Plus, you were able to get into the house, right?”

“True.” he conceded.

“MACUSA managed to convince Gringotts to transfer your respective fortunes to America. You both have more money then you ever thought.”

“Does that mean I have all the Black money?”

“Yes, and Gringotts took away Bellatrix and Narcissa's dowries as they were Death Eaters/ married to a Death Eater and letting their money be used for that cause.” 

“Good. We'll have to go to the bank soon, then.” Sirius said and lead the way over to the next open doorway. It was the kitchen, and it was a pale cream a few shades away  
from the white of the living room. All of the appliances were also stainless steel. There was a door that lead to a fully stocked pantry, and another that lead to a large dining room, though there was a granite island in the kitchen that Harry suspected they would be eating at, most of the time. 

The group backtracked to the living room, where they went to the next door. It was a small bathroom, with neither a bath or a shower. The next doorway was a hallway with 7 rooms off of it. The first two were normal sized bedrooms that Amber said were for guests. The next room was a huge movie/entertainment room, that had a huge TV and was surrounded by couches. The other half of the room had an air hockey table and huge, empty built in bookshelf. Up against the shelf was a few comfortable looking armchairs.

The next doorway was a music room that had a piano, two guitars(one acoustic, and one electric), and a few amps in it, along with various hooks for different instruments. “Do you play anything Harry?” Sirius asked.

“In primary, you have to have at least one year playing an instrument, though it was preferred that you had two. I borrowed a cello from the school, and was one of the better kids in my class, though all of us weren't that good. Dudley played trumpet, and a week after Petunia bought him the thing, he managed to dent it somehow. I kept the cello at the school, to prevent that from happening to it. You?”

“My parents forced me to learn to piano. Amber can play the guitar if I remember correctly.” Sirius said.

“You do.” she said.

“We'll get a cello for you if you want, Harry, but otherwise I think this room will stay as it is.”

“Cool! Thank you, Sirius.” Harry said.

“You're welcome” Sirius said, and they went back to the hallway. The next door was a white bathroom. The sixth room was a large bedroom, which had a blue theme and a teal bathroom. The last door was a gold and red themed bedroom, with a matching bathroom, which Sirius took. Amber told Harry not to claim the blue room, as she had a surprise for him. They went back to the living room, where Amber lead them through the second to last door. It lead up a staircase, where there was another hallway. This hallway only had four doors. The first lead to large sitting room. The second was an office. The third was a cream bathroom. The fourth, however, lead to another staircase.

This staircase lead to an attic bedroom. It was also red and gold, with a matching bathroom. Right above the bed was a window that had a beautiful view of the ocean. “Wow.” Harry said.

“Do you want this room?” Sirius asked. “You'll have to deal with those stairs every day.” he warned.

“Yes. And I'm used to Hogwarts stairs. In comparison, these are nothing.” 

“True. It's yours, then.” Sirius said.

“Thanks!” Harry said, but had a suspicion that this room was designed for him. The red and gold in the two biggest rooms was kind of obvious. Harry pulled his suitcase out of his pocket, where he had put it after it had been shrunken, and Amber put it back into full size.

“We have 15 minutes until the Principal is here.” Amber said, and they all went back to the living room. They explored the last door, which lead to the cellar, but were sitting in the living room, waiting for the principal to come.

Suddenly, Harry heard a portkey dislodging it's traveler outside. She was here.

Harry could hear the footsteps of someone walking across the porch and over to the door. She hesitated slightly before ringing the doorbell. The minute they could hear her, Sirius had stood up and walked to the front door, getting there a second after she did. He pulled the door door open, and it revealed a tall brunette woman, who had a no nonsense attitude that was rather like Professor McGonagall's. “Hello, I'm Sirius Black.”

“Hello Mr. Black. I am Mrs. Jennings, and the Principal of The California School of Magic.”

“Come on in Mrs. Jennings.” he said, and lead her into the house.

“Hello Mr. Potter, Amber.” she greeted.

“Hi Eleanor.” Amber said, and the principal gave her a stern look, probably for using her first name in front of a future student. Amber just smiled serenely. 

“Hello Mrs. Jennings.” Harry said as Sirius sat back down on the couch beside him, and Mrs. McGee sat in the chair opposite them.

“How much do you know about CSM?” she asked them.

“Not much.” Harry admitted.

“Well, CSM is in the middle of a redwood forest that has been concealed from muggles ever since 1791, when it was founded by Spanish missionaries who were setting up the California missions. They created it as a place to teach their children, and occasionally, the Native Americans, if the person was particularly powerful. However, said Native American was treated like your muggleborn back in Britain. Here in America, we don't really have the whole pureblood thing, we're just too diverse. There are the occasional few, but they are rare. I don't think there are any in your class, anyway. The school itself still looks like a mission, but it has been added to. If it hadn't, we wouldn't have enough space to put everyone! It all still looks like a mission, though. Unlike Hogwarts’s castle, it is fairly easy to get around, though. You won’t find yourself getting lost for weeks.” she said with a smile.

“Do you have houses, like Hogwarts?” Harry asked.

“No. Instead, we have a boys dorm and a girls dorm that are on completely different sides of the school. Two dorms share a bathroom, with two people per dorm. We also try to make sure that the people in the dorm like each other, and are in the same grade. Occasionally we have two people in completely different grades wanting a dorm together, but they are usually siblings.” she explained.

“That means less rivalries, right?” Harry asked.

“Correct. That was one of the main things the creators of the school insisted on, when they made the school. If everyone is separated, people who could have been the best of friends, hate each other for what they represent.”

“That's true.” Harry admitted “I could have been friends with quite a few Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws, and maybe the odd Slytherin, but the houses divided us. I'm not too sure about the Slytherin part, though.” he said, and Mrs. Jennings gave his an admonishing look. “It wasn't that I wouldn't want to be become friends with them because of their house, it's that all of the people I’ve met in that house are bullies. I haven’t met many of them, though.” he quickly said.

“In CSM, we have a very firm policy on bullies. They aren't allowed. Pranks, yes, as long as it doesn't focus on more then one person, and isn't cruel, but bullies, no.” Mrs. Jennings said firmly.

“You would find me bullying people.” Harry promised “I've been the target of them far to much to become one.” 

“Good.” Mrs. Jennings said.

“When does the term start?” Sirius asked.

“This year it starts on August 15, but our summer starts before yours does, and we have a week off in November, for Thanksgiving, and a week off in February, for President's week.” She explained before Harry could start protesting that Hogwarts starts on September first.

“And that is added to the two weeks in December, and Spring break?” Sirius asked, amazed.

“Yes.” the principal said with a smile.

“I'm jealous, kiddo.” he told Harry. “I wish I had that many breaks when I was in school.”

“Your parents would of hated it.” Amber smirked.

“That they would have. And I would have enjoyed that.” He smirked back.

“I assume you have paperwork for us to fill out?” Amber asked, changing the subject.

“Correct.” she said, and pulled a small tan piece of paper from her bag, then tapped it with her wand, and it instantly turned into a folder full of papers. Harry glared at the stuffed folder. If there was anything that deserved Askaban, he thought, it would be paperwork. He had a very small amount of experience with the horrid stuff, and he already despised it. He looked over to Sirius, and Harry was surprised the paper wasn't on fire with the strength of the glare that the man had on it. Amber just sighed, and gave it a forlorn look.

“Paperwork wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for all the paper. And the work.” Amber sighed

Mrs. Jennings smiled “I have so much paperwork, I'm afraid my paperwork has paperwork.” 

“Happiness is no paperwork.” Sirius grinned.

“I've finally caught up on all my paperwork- said no one anywhere.” Harry smirked.

The entire group started laughing. They didn't stop for a few minutes.

“Whew.” Mrs. Jennings said “I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Now, I’m afraid I have to go. Anything I didn't mention is either in the paperwork on this book.” she said, pulling the small book out of her purse and setting it on top of the paperwork. “If that fails, which I doubt it will, ask Amber. She graduated from the school, and should know the answers to your questions. If all else fails, she knows how to contact me.” 

“Thank you for giving up your time, Mrs. Jennings.” Harry said. 

“This is something we do for all transfer students, Mr. Potter, and yes, I’m the one who is usually doing it, too. Besides I take any excuse I can get to get out of the school.” she smiled.

“Thank you, anyway.” he said.

“Your welcome, Mr. Potter.” she said, and everyone said goodbye, as Sirius escorted her tp the door, and she was gone.

“So... what do we have to do next?” Harry asked once Sirius was sitting back down, and everyone laughed.

“Nothing, really. Other then unpacking, anyways. The kitchen is fully stocked, and everything is ready, all you have to do is unpack you personal things. And Harry, is that school trunk all the stuff you have?” Amber asked.

“Yes.”

“And it isn't magically made bigger, or anything?” she questioned.

“No” Harry said nervously.

She huffed. “I expected Sirius to have next to nothing, he's been in prison for years, but not you too.” she complained. “Well, there's only one solution. Tomorrow, I’m dragging you both out to go shopping.”

Sirius and Harry looked at each other, and groaned. “Run away now?” Harry suggested.

“No use. She'll find us. I've gone shopping with her before.” Sirius said hopelessly.

“Shut up you two, and go straighten out your things.” Amber ordered. The two did as told, without comment. 

Later, after seeing how little stuff he really had, Harry agreed that it was probably a good idea. That didn't mean he didn't like it though. After they had finished putting their things away, everyone gathered in the sitting room, and played board games for the rest of the night, only taking a break for dinner. That night, Harry fell asleep to the sight of the stars through the window and the rhythmic sound of the waves crashing against the beach below him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The next day was spent cleaning, then relaxing. Amber had found a stash of board games in a hidden closet in the game room, so most of the day was spent playing a magical version of Monopoly. The only differences Harry could find between it and normal Monopoly is that your character moved by itself, it kept an automatic tally on the amount of money you had, and if you died, the character of person who you lost to would come and kill yours. They didn't really do anything important that day, just calm down from the insanity that had been the last few days. 

Unfortunately for Sirius and Harry, the day after that was spent in the San Francisco Alley- the Californian version of Diagon alley. Amber had told Harry the rest off the US alleys were similarly named. Harry thought it was rather unoriginal- but at least it was clear, which meant no embarrassing Floo trip mistakes. Harry definitely didn't want to have another one of those- he could land anywhere in the huge country! 

Harry appeared out of the Floo in yet another white room. The room was a rather large square, with about 20 fireplaces spread out along the walls. Somehow all the fires didn't make the room hot. The fire that he had been in flared green, and Amber stepped out. Next came Sirius, who gracefully stepped out, then flicked his wand, vanishing the ash on all of them. “Thanks Sirius.” Harry grinned. It was much better then Hagrid's/Molly Weasley's method of brushing him off! And it got everything off, instead of most of it!

“Come on, lots to do!” Amber said, grinning, then led them to a door opposite to where they where. Sirius sighed, but followed her, with Harry on his heels. Unfortunately for Sirius, the day was mostly spent buying clothes, and other things Amber deemed necessary, but they did go to a few interesting places. Amber had bought many bags of clothes, for Sirius and Harry, which she shrunk and put in her purse. When they asked, she said that she was buying the things with money that America had fined Britain, and had been kept in an account for times like this. Sirius and Harry had grinned, and said nothing more on the topic. One of those was a barber shop, where they got Sirius' long hair cut off. He now looked more like the man Harry had seen in his parent's wedding photos. Another one was an optometrist, who looked at Harry’s glasses with distaste, and said they were the wrong prescription. Harry had then got magically fitted with better, more stylish glasses, that would change as his eyes did. However, Harry's favorite store was the music store that they went to. Sirius had bought him a cello, which would teach him as he learned, and he could turn off the charm if he wanted to. They had also bought a lot of sheet music of various levels. Another store they had gone to was an electronics store, where they had gotten two laptops: one for Harry and another for Sirius. In Britain magicals would have never even considered looking at, much less buying muggle technology. Harry had noticed that American wizards were much less stuffy then Britain’s. Harry hadn't seen a single robe wearing person in the three hours he had been in the large, crowded mall. When he had commented on it to Amber, she told him that robes were never used, unless for important magical rituals. Harry also noticed that Amber and everyone else he had seen paid with either a credit card with a Gringotts insignia on it, or in normal muggle cash. Sirius had commented to Amber on it, and she said that it was easier to pretend to be muggles when you actually knew how their money system worked, and weren't carting around strange gold, silver, and bronze coins. Harry did admit that is was easier to carry around paper money or a credit card then a bag of coins. Harry hadn't gotten his supply list yet, so they didn't have to buy any school supplies. They had gotten lunch in one of the multiple restaurants in the large mall, that Harry thought was better then the Leaky Cauldron as you weren't afraid to eat it, though it lacked the character of the divider between London and Magical Britain. 

After they had finished shopping, they had gone home, and went back to relaxing. And that was when an owl tapped on the window. The owl was a large brown owl, and carried a paper in it's talons. Amber hurried over to the window, and threw it open. The owl regally fluttered in, and sat on the back of a chair, and waited for Amber to pull the paper off. It stuck it's other leg out, and she dug around in one of her pockets, and fished out a handful of knuts. She poured them into the pouch, and the bird flew off. “I thought you said that Americans don't use coins?” Harry asked, confused.

“They don't.” she said, glaring at her paper “You Brits, however, do. And this is a British paper.”

“What's wrong?” Sirius asked.

“Apparently, Harry was kidnapped by you, and the Americans are helping him do it.” she sighed.

“Fun.” Harry groaned. “Who wrote it?”

“Rita Skeeter.” Amber glared at her paper again.

“Even worse.” Sirius sighed. 

They were all to busy glaring at the paper to notice the person who walked up to the door.

They were all startled when they hear the knock on the door. Amber hurried towards it, wand drawn, and told Harry and Sirius to hide. They ran into the kitchen as Amber slowly opened the door.

“Sir!” she exclaimed “I didn't expect to see you!”

“You do realize that the wards only allow me, Mrs. Jennings, Harry Potter, Sirius Black, and yourself in, correct?” Agent Spennor chuckled.

“Um.. no, sir.” she replied, and Sirius and Harry cautiously crept out of he kitchen

“You think we would do all that work in getting him here, just to let people come in in the middle of the night and take him?” he said sharply.

“Um.. no sir.”

“Good. Now, may I come in?”

“Yes, sir.” she said, then lead him in. Sirius and Harry were standing beside the couch, waiting. “I thought I told you to hide.” Amber commented.

“We decided, once we realized it was your boos, that we didn't need to.” Harry said cheekily. 

Amber gave him a frown, but turned towards her boss as they all sat down, and asked “Why are you here today, sir?”

He just pointed at the copy of the Daily Prophet that had been abandoned on the coffee table. “Britain.” 

“Good point.” Sirius capitulated. “I'm going to assume that you want me to make a statement or something before the panic and hatred of the U.S. is worldwide?” he asked.

“Precisely. I'm going to assume, as the oldest male in your family, you were given the training?” the agent questioned.

“Correct, even if I hated it at the time. I think it was one of the reasons I rebelled the second I could, truthfully.” Sirius grimaced.

“Wait, they taught you before you even went to Hogwarts?” Spennor asked, shocked.

“Yeah.” 

“Wow. I suddenly appreciate America more then ever.” Amber said dryly.

“So do I.” Agent Spennor smiled lightly. “Well, I have paperwork to deal with, so I need you to start working on that statement, ok? I need it in three days.”

“It will be done.” Sirius asseverated.

“I will make sure it is done, sir.” Amber told her superior.

“Good, thank you Ms. Chaperon. I will see myself out. Good bye.” he said as he stood up.

“Bye.” everyone called and he walked outside.

“Well, that was weird.” Harry commented.

“Is it just me, or was he very different then he was when we first meet him?” Sirius asked.

“Don't worry, it was him. Everyone in the department has a certain set of codes, and he gave the correct responses. And we are unable to give out said code.”

“But, still his entire personality was different.” Sirius protested.

“He is like that when he is out of his office. There is a huge office pool running on whether or not he is actually two different people.” Amber laughed.

“How much money is in it?” Sirius asked, grinning.

“I don't know the exact number, but it is over 50 dollars.” she smirked, and everyone laughed. 

“Well, now that that is over with, it's getting rather late, and I suspect that the next few days will be busy and insane. Therefore, I vote that we all go get some sleep.”

Amber yawned, as if the idea of sleep made her tired. “I agree with that. Goodnight, boys.” she said, and walked down the hallway to her room. 

“Good night, Harry.”

“Goodnight Sirius.” Harry said and he walked up the stairs to his room.

The next day, they were besieged by owls. Many were hate letters from Britain, which were promptly burned as kindling, but some were from Americans, welcoming him to America. The kept all of the nice ones in a binder, which was the first thing in their large bookcase in the game room. After the binder was put in, Harry ran upstairs and got all the textbooks he had gotten, and put him in. The only ones that weren't there were the Lockheart books, as Harry had burned them the first chance he had gotten. Amber had put a few books on a different shelf that were about the American wizarding population, and how it differed from others for Harry and Sirius to read. Other then that, the huge book case looked very empty- which Amber swore she'd fix when they went to get Harry's school supplies. Harry thought that, at times, she acted like an older Hermione. She and Harry had started a game of air hockey while Sirius was working on his statement. While they were playing she explain her job, which was basically a wizarding version of the FBI. She was a Legat Operations Specialist, a person who, along with Special Agents, pursue terrorist, intelligence, and criminal threats with international dimensions in every part of the world by working in embassies. It was rare that she had to go into the field and work, though. She was usually in her office collaborating where everyone was. She was rather high in her department, so her superiors didn't like it when she was in the field.

“So, your title is Agent Chaperon?” Harry asked.

“Yep.” Amber grinned “Sounds cool, doesn't it?”

“It does.” Harry agreed. “So, do you ever work with your muggle counterparts?”

“Rarely, when the case needs it. The Special agents do more though.” she explained.

“Do magicals have their own military?” Harry asked.

“Kind of. If you decided to join, you would be sent to boot camp with all of the muggles, but once you finished it, with no magic allowed, you would be sent to a different boot camp just for magicals, to see if you are good enough, magically. Why?” 

“I don't recall anyone ever mentioning Britain having one. If they didn't, wouldn't that mean they completely rely on their Aurors, which are basically police?”

“Correct, they don't have one, though they have the Hit Wizards which are basically SWAT teams- highly trained teams destined for taking on dangerous criminals.”

“No wonder Volde is still around.” Harry grumbled bitterly.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

So far, the summer had been going pretty good for Harry. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to last long. He had started having dreams about either a long dark hallway with dozens of doors, and he always tried to get to the door at the end of the hallway. But by the time he got to the door, he would wake up, shaking in fear. The other dreams were all about what Volde was doing to various people, and his boring meeting after the attacks, for his followers to report. There was never any hint of what was going to happen next- it was as if Moldy Pants (another one of Sirius' nicknames for deadly people) knew exactly what Harry was seeing. It was very demoralizing

Harry finally gave up on keeping the midnight terrors to himself the morning the letters with the supply list for CSM came."You should of told us sooner." Amber said gently "There are ways to prevent this. One is Occlumency- the art of magically closing one's mind. I have learned it, and can teach you. We can get a few books on it, when we go school shopping today." she said with a smile.

"How long does it take to learn?" Harry asked, hoping that he could learn it quickly, to get rid of the horrible nightmares.

"It depends- some people takes months, or even years, yet others take only weeks. But, usually, the people who take weeks are people who have someone in their head-like you, and want to get them out." Sirius responded " I was taught Occlumency too, so I can help teach you- though I doubt you'd approve of my dearest mother's teaching methods."

Amber scoffed "Your mother was.."

"A wailing banshee?" Sirius suggested

Amber snorted. "That's an insult to all banshees." she deadpanned. And even Harry joined the laughter at that remark.

A few hours later, they were at the mall again. However, this time they went to Gringotts before they went into the 's Gringotts was very different then the British branch. It was like it's British counterpart in that it was made of marble and was run by Goblins, but that was about it. There were no Goblins weighing precious stones in full view of anyone who walked in, and there wasn't dozens of doors lining the walls. One wall was lined with a version of muggle ATM machines. The people wanting to withdraw money put their wands on one scanner, and scanned their Gringotts cards in another. They would then type in a password, then type the amount of money they needed, and it would come spitting out of the machine. Harry saw this happen many times while he was waiting in line with Amber and Sirius to talk to one of the they finally got to the teller, Amber told him that they needed to speak with the person in charge of the Black and Potter accounts. When she told him that, the goblin nodded sharply, and gestured to a Goblin standing slightly behind him. "Ranark will take you to you manager." he said, and the other goblin lead them to one of the doors leading deeper into the bank. Another difference between America's Gringotts and Britain's is that they didn't go deep underground, the Goblin lead them to an office door just off of the main hallway they had just entered. The door had a plaque in it that said 'Potter and Black'

"Between the two of you, you are our largest customer in this branch. Therefore, you get priority service." The goblin told them as he knocked on the door, and waited for a gruff "come in" to echo back to him.

The office they entered was bare and minimalistic- the room had hard wooden chairs in front of a desk, and not much else. "Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, and Agent Chaperon, sir." Ranark said.

"Thank you, teller." the older goblin said, and Ranark nodded, and walked away. Amber lead the way into the office, and the Goblin waved them to the view that Harry got of the nameplate on the desk wasn't exactly comforting- Trollslayer. Trollslayer fished into his desk for a moment before pulling out a pair of files out, and handing one to Sirius, and the other Harry. “Those are the files we have on your money, including the amount of money you have in our currency. I would take a look- it might be different then what you expect. Oh, and Mr. Potter, we don't have any law resisting you from getting into your full fortune, as long as your guardian agrees. So that is the total of all of your vaults, not just your school vault. You are going to agree to let him have his full fortune, right Mr. Black?" the goblin asked.

"Yes, I will. Though he will have to go though some money management classes."

Harry opened up the file, and his mouth dropped open in shock. "Wow." he mummered. "That's a lot of zeros."

 

The rest of the trip, in comparison, was boring. They bought his school books, paper and pencils (No more quills and ink!), binders, a new trunk(with a lot more space) and uniforms, along with everything else he might need for school. He also went the music store and bought new sheet music, an extra bow, and more rosin. He had signed up to take all of the classes he had back in Hogwarts, except Divination, which CSM didn’t have. He instead replaced it with orchestra. It was a decision he was happy that he made. He didn’t think he would be able to put up with another year of Divination, even with a better teacher. In America, it was recognized that true Seers were extremely rare, and if you wanted to learn it, you had to a) have the Sight, and b) find someone else with Sight to teach you. It was apparently pointless to teach someone who didn’t have the Sight, as they might occasionally get glimpses of the future, but would never be able to truly see the future. Harry was left wondering if Trelawney was one of the people who only got glimpses, and instead relied on her ancestor’s reputation, and the sherry she was so fond of (he had once seen a bottle hiding behind a leg of her desk). Other then his joy at not taking Divination, his shopping trip was very boring.

When they got home, Sirius gave him the book on Occlumency, and told him to start studying it. The book instructed him to construct a form of shield of his choice around his mind, but to not go any further until he had mastered that part. It, however, did specify that if he was attacked while at this stage, to clear his mind of all emotions and memories, and try to completely focus on maintaining his shield for as long as he could.

Harry spent all of the time from getting home from shopping to dinner practicing Occlumency and packing the things he wouldn’t need until the first day of school in his trunk. He left a binder out to put all of his music that he had already bought in, however. After dinner, Harry followed Sirius and Amber into the family room, where Amber gently tested what he had already done. He somehow could sense her, a light presence fluttering around the edges of his defenses, never touching it, but finding the weak spots. He saw the weak spots as well, and reminded himself to work on fixing them later. After about a half an hour, he felt her pull away. He kept concentrating on his defenses until she taped his shoulder.

“Very good, Harry! Much better then most others after the amount of time that you’ve had to practice, with no formal instruction, only the book. You had no obvious large holes, yes you had a few small ones, and a few spots that it I had hit them, would have crumbled, but you had no huge holes. That is far beyond what others would of gotten.”

“When I’m told ‘this could save your life’ I tend to pay attention.” he said dryly.

“Point.” Sirius said just as dryly.

“That might just be a good idea.” Amber deadpanned, and they all laughed. “Harry- I want you to practice, but not too much tonight. Even if it doesn’t feel like it, you are still using magic. If you do it too much at once, you will get what’s called a reaction headache. It’s worse then most other headaches. If you every get one while practicing, I want you to come to me immediately. I’ll give you the potion that will make it hurt less, but it won’t completely block it. That is, if you aren’t trying to keep a Dark Lord out of your head. Then, just try to fight through the pain as much as possible, and hope that backup gets there soon.” she said grimly.

Harry nodded, and hoped he would never have to deal with the last part. He had hoped that when he had left Britain, he had left all of Volde’s problems, forever. But apparently not.

Harry spent the next month practicing Occlumency, getting to the point he could repel full on attacks. He knew that he couldn’t hold off someone really powerful, though. That would only come with time and practice. When not practicing Occlumency and studying his school books, Harry spent time in the ocean, and exploring the forest, along with playing Quidditch in the field. The week before school quickly hit them, the euphoria of summer not lasting forever as it had seemed in the middle of the summer. Harry was, rather uncharacteristically, nervous, which annoyed him as he had faced Moldy-pants three times without blinking an eye, but was nervous going to a new school. Amber just pointed out that before he fought Volde, he never had enough time to get really nervous, but now he had way to much time. Harry just tried to distract himself with playing Quidditch and his cello. It didn’t work all that well. But the end of summer still arrived.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

When the first day of school arrived, Harry, for the first time, regretted his decision to live on the third floor. He was faced with either pushing his trunk down the stairs, (which lead to it pulling him down the stairs, landing in a painful heap) or pulling it (which lead to bowling him over, and him in a yet another painful heap.) He chose the former for the first staircase, and the later for the second. When he hit the bottom of the second staircase, he was faced with his godfather and Amber sitting on the couch (very close, he absentmindedly noted) and laughing at him.

“You could of asked me to shrink it.” Sirius chuckled.

Harry glared “Why didn’t you come and do it after you heard the first thump?” he questioned.

“We were too busy laughing.” Amber grinned.

Harry huffed, then asked “So how do we get to the school?”

“Well, since people come in from every direction, we don’t have a bright red steam engine.” Amber said dryly. “Anyway, people can come any way they can come up with, really. Apparition, portkey, brooms (if they if they are good with disillusionment charms, of course), floo, and some non-majs drive their kids.

“Better question- how are we getting to school?”

Amber laughed “We are Apparating. Sirius will side-along you. Next summer, you can learn how, once you are 16.”

“Cool! Instant teleportation! If only it didn’t feel as horrible as all the other types of magical travel.” Harry moaned. Amber and Sirius just laughed.

“That’s the price you pay for instantaneous travel, I guess.” Sirius sighed.

An hour later, and some annoying instantaneous travel (a phrase Harry had never thought he would be saying) they were at the school.

The school was different then anything Harry had every seen. Sure, it wasn’t a medieval castle, but it held a different kind of beauty. They had appeared in front of the school, with a road behind them, where students were being tearfully dropped off. The road was the sign of civilization, like Hogwarts. Unlike Hogwarts, the building couldn’t be anything more then four stories tall, and there was white covering the stone of the building. There was a small staircase leading up to a set of arches- One large one in the middle, and a small arch to either side of it. Beyond the arches, a couple feet in, there was a large door, however, it wasn’t nearly as tall as Hogwart’s were. Above the arches, there were three bells, each inside their own mini arch. He could see faces, and hands waving at others, so he assumed that they also functioned as windows. Beside the three big arches, there was a wall that pointed towards them, and occasionally, harried adults ran in and out of the door. Above the door, there was another arched window, except this one didn’t have a bell in it. The main building was long, and surrounded on two sides with other buildings. The other two buildings were identical, and were built like the main building, but they weren’t identical. Harry then noticed that only girls were coming in and out of the building to the right, and only boys to the left.

“Amber!” A voice called, and Harry turned to see a blonde man hurrying towards them.

“Hello, Howard.” Amber smiled. Harry got the impression that the tall man was a former teacher of hers, and one that she had liked.

“Mrs. Jennings asked me to come and find you, and your charge so I could show him around.” he told her.

“Ok. Howard, this is Harry Potter. Harry, this is Mr. Stevenson. He is the defense teacher here.” Amber told him.

“Hello, sir.” Harry said. 

“Hello, Mr. Potter.” the teacher said, and for the first time ever, Harry was introduced to a teacher (Mrs. Jennings didn’t count as she was a principal, not a teacher) who wasn’t a) shocked about who he was of b) immediately glance up at his scar. It was a refreshing feeling, to say the least. He just hoped there would be more people like that at his new school. He didn’t think he would be able to deal with more fangirls- or worse fanboys, as they could get into his dorm!

“Good luck, Harry.” Amber said, smiling softly as Mr. Stevenson backed up a couple steps to give them an illusion of privacy. “I hope you like it here.” 

“Thanks for everything, Amber.” He said, then surprising himself, he hugged her. Physical contact was not exactly something that was encouraged in the Dursley household, so the fact that he hugged her was unforeseen. 

After a few moments, they pulled away. Harry turned towards Sirius. “I’ll miss you, Prongslet.” the Marauder smiled sadly. 

“I’ll miss you too.” Harry said, then hugged him as well. “I’ll write, tonight, and tell you what it’s like. Okay?” he questioned.

“You better.” Sirius said as they pulled away. “Good luck, and have fun. I expect to hear about everything.” 

“You will, and Amber too.”

“Bye Harry.” 

“Bye Sirius.” they exchanged one last sad smile, and Harry walked towards his new teacher. They started walking towards the boys dorms. Just before he walked through the door, he turned around one last time. They were still there, so he waved. They waved back but there was one difference- Amber arm was wrapped around his waist, and his was around her shoulders. ‘About time’ Harry thought, before he followed his new teacher through the arched doors.

 

The first thing Harry though as he walked through the arches was “wow”. The reason for the comment was the difference from Hogwarts. In Hogwarts, all the walls where all stone, and despite the many windows, it was always slightly gloomy. Here, the walls where whitewashed, with gold accents everywhere. The ceiling where high, with multiple wooden support beams along it. The corridor had 7 doors arrayed along it, and Mr. Stevenson lead him to the one that had a number 5 in gold on it. “This is your year’s boys common room. You are allowed to go in other year’s rooms, if someone invites you in, of course, and girls are allowed in, but not in this first week. And if the girl is anywhere but your common room, there will be strict consequences.” he warned, then lead Harry into the room. The room was rather like Hogwarts that it was filled with armchairs, couches, chairs circling tables, and a fireplace. Unlike Hogwarts, there was a large TV surrounded by what looked like more comfortable versions of movie theater chairs. “It’s impressive, isn’t it?” Mr. Stevenson smiled, then lead Harry to a door at the end of the room. “This door has a ward on it that won’t let girls in, except for teachers. It will blare an alarm if someone does. Understand?”

“Yes, sir.” Harry said, and they walked though the door.

The door had just enough space to open before you were at a staircase, which, as you climbed, twisted so that you were facing the opposite direction. The stairs open up to a corridor, which had 12 doors along it. Mr. Stevenson lead him to a door at the very end, and knocked.

“Enter” a voice called for inside.

Mr. Stevenson walked in, with Harry following. “Zeb, this is your new roommate, Harry Potter. Harry, this is Zebulon Pike.”

“Hey.” the brown haired teenager said

“Hi.”

“Harry, I have to go do stuff, so I’m going to hand the rest of your tour over to Zeb, if that’s okay with both of you?”

“Sure.” Zeb said, and Harry nodded. 

“Good, I’ll see both of you later.” Mr. Stevenson smiled, and walked out the door. Once he was out of the door, Harry looked around the dorm room. It had two beds, each tucked up against opposite walls, and across from them were two desks. One of the beds was covered by a thick blue blanket on top of the school provided comforter, and the desk beside it was covered in papers. There was a trunk at the end of the bed. 

“That’s your bed and desk.” Zebulon said, pointing towards the empty things. “And please call me Zeb. My mother named me after an American explorer that she is very distantly related to. My sister was named after his wife, Clarissa Harlow Brown, though my mom cut the Brown part off. Needless to say, we both hate her for it.”

Harry smiled “I probably would too.” he said as he pulled his trunk out his pocket, and set it down beside his bed, before taping it with his wand, causing it to grow to full size.

“Do you play quidditch?” asked Zeb.

“Yeah, I play seeker. You?”

“Chaser. We need a seeker for the school team this year- we have one but he’s awful, and only plays because if he didn’t we wouldn’t have a team. Here in America, Quodpot is a lot more popular.”

“What’s Quodpot?” Harry asked. “I think heard about it before, but just the name.”

“It was created by a quidditch player who accidentally made the ball explode when he was tossing it around. It blew up in his face, and he wanted to recreate the affect. There are 11 players on each side. They though the Quod, which is basically a modified Quaffle, though the air, trying to get into the pot and the end of the pitch, before it explodes. The pot is a small cauldron, which is filled with a solution that keeps the Quod from exploding. Once the Quod is in the pot, the team that scored gets a point. However, if it explodes while someone is holding it, they must leave the game.”

“That’s sounds fun, but I doubt I will play it. I like my eyebrows where they are, thank you very much!” Harry grinned.

“Why do you think I play Quidditch?!” Zeb laughed.

“Do you have regular muggle sports here?” Harry asked.

“Yes- anything a normal high school would have. Why?”

“If I didn’t have Quidditch, I’d be tempted by football- soccer for you Americans.” 

“You can’t be in two sports at once, unfortunately, and the seasons are at the same time. If I could, I would have joined the swim team, but I love Quidditch to much to quit it.”

“What was your favorite game you’ve ever played?” Harry asked him, and they dove into the world of Harry’s favorite sport.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zebulon Montgomery Pike (January 5, 1779– April 27, 1813) was an American brigadier general and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado was renamed (from El Capitan). As a U.S. Army officer he led two expeditions, first to reconnoiter the upper reaches of the Mississippi River in 1805-06 and then in 1806-07 to explore the Southwest to the fringes of the northern Spanish-colonial settlements. Pike's expeditions coincided with other Jeffersonian expeditions including the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806) and the Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis expedition (1806).[1] The second Pike Expedition crossed the Rocky Mountains into southern Colorado, which led to his capture by the Spanish, who sent Pike and his men to Chihuahua (present-day Mexico), for interrogation. Later in 1807 Pike and some of his men were escorted by the Spanish through Texas and released near American territory.  
> In 1810 Pike published an account of his expeditions, a book so popular that it was translated into French, German and Dutch for publication in Europe. He later achieved the rank of brigadier general in the Army, serving during the War of 1812, until he was killed during the Battle of York.  
> Zebulon Pike Jr. married Clarissa Harlow Brown in 1801.They had one child who survived to adulthood, a daughter, Clarissa Brown Pike, who later married John Cleves Symmes Harrison, a son of President William Henry Harrison. 
> 
> I got the section about Quodpot from JK Rowling’s Quidditch Though the Ages. If you want to learn more about Quodpot, it is on pages 83 and 84 (or just google it. That works too.)


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

About an hour later, a loud bell rang, and Harry started. “What was that?” He asked.

“That is the bell they ring when a meal starts for the first few weeks. After that, they expect you to be able to keep track of time by yourself. The bell also rings when class begins and ends, along with one at curfew. You are also expected to wake yourself up in the morning.” Zeb explained.

 

“That makes sense. At Hogwarts, there wasn’t anything to tell us when curfew was, so every year, for the first few weeks, a lot of people would get detentions for being out.”

“Ouch!” Zeb said as he started rummaging under his bed for something. HE made a sound of success and pull the thing out- a pair of shoes. “I hate unpacking. Things never go where they’re supposed to, and you find things in weird places for about a month.” Zeb grimaced as he pulled the shoes on.

“Packing is worse, though.” Harry argued “Things get spread out everywhere, and you can never find the one thing you need, and by the time you find it, you had forgotten you had ever needed it!”

Zeb laughed, and walked out the door, with Harry following. Once they were out of the room and in the hallway, Zeb waved to someone. Two people waved back, and walked over to them.

“Harry, these two idiots are David Williams and Percy Newell. Guys, this is Harry Potter, my new roommate.”

“Hey.” David grinned “Don’t believe anything he says about us- it’s all lies.”

“He never says anything good about us.” Percy smirked, shaking his blonde hair out of his eyes. “I think he’s just jealous.” he stage- whispered.

“Oh shut it.” Zeb grumbled. “Anywhere, where is Archer?” he asked.

 

Both boys winced “Probably dead.” Percy told him “He got paired with John this year, because Mike moved to Idaho.”

Zeb winced, then turned to a clueless Harry “Archer is another friend of ours, and John is one of those people who likes to annoy people for the fun of it. He was my roommate last year. I think they put you in with me because Archer can put up with him better then I can, and the teachers didn’t like the fact that we fought at least once every week.”

 

“Yeah, I know some people like that.” Harry grimaced, remembering Dudley’s gang.

 

“Anyway, we better get down to the dining hall.” David said. “Archer is either already down there, or he can catch up later.” With that they joined the mass exodus leaving the dorms and common rooms. David lead the way out of the boy’s dorms, and towards the large door that Harry had noticed before. However, unlike earlier, the door was open, and students were flooding into it. When Harry got into the large room, he realized it was very different then Hogwarts was. The room was filled with tables that were round, and each could hold 12 people. There were about thirty tables spread out throughout the majority of the room. At the end of the room opposite from the door, there was a platform raised about a foot off from the rest of the room. That was were a group of teachers sat, in a long table not unlike the one that the Hogwarts staff used. However, there were people sitting on either side of the table. 

While Harry was taking in everything, Zeb and his friends had been scanning the tables, before waving at someone. A group at a table about half full waved back, and he lead the group towards them. 

“Hey everyone!” David grinned, sitting down next to a blonde girl. 

“Everyone, this is Harry Potter, my new roommate. Harry, the girl that David is sitting by is Sophie, then there is Jessica, Diana, Isabelle-” Zeb said, ducking the ball of paper the last girl threw at him.

“It’s Izzy. He is the only one brave enough to call me that. And no calling me Belle or Sable or anything like that.” she said glaring at Zeb.

“And on the end is Archer.” Zeb finished with a grin as they all sat down. A few minutes later, Mrs. Jennings stood up, and there was near instant silence. Harry was instantly reminded of Professor McGonagall’s ability to do the same.

“Hello, to all students, new and old, and welcome to California Magical Academy!” She said, and students cheered. That lead to a huge amount older students chanting ‘19 what?’ ‘1996’ and ‘Seniors! Seniors! Seniors!’ and ‘Go bears! Go bears!’

Mrs. Jennings just stood there and waited for them to calm down, which took a while. Neither she or any of the other teachers looked at all surprised at the yelling, which lead Harry to believe that this was a yearly occurrence. “Yes, yes, thank you seniors.” she said dryly, which lead to the loudest group of seniors cheering. She waited for them to quiet down again, then said “I am obligated to remind you that all of last year’s rules still exist. If you do not know those rules or have forgotten them over the summer, you all have a copy of the rule book in your dorm room, and there are a few in the library. That said, enjoy!” she said, and sat down, with food appearing on the tables.

Harry and his group immediately started eating, and he noticed the food was very different then Hogwarts, before internally scolding himself for relating everything to his old school, whether it was the same or different. “So, Harry, what was your favorite class?” Diana asked.

“My favorite class was either Defense Against the Dark Arts, or charms. What are yours?”

“My favorite is Defense.” she smiled.

“My favorite is Creatures.” Zeb said.

“Mine and Jessica’s are charms.” Izzy said.

“Mine is transfiguration.” David said.

“Mine is History of magic.”

“I like both defense and potions.” Percy said.

“Ditto.” Archer grinned.

“Guess what!” Zeb exclaimed. Without waiting for anyone to say anything, he continued “Harry was a seeker on his house quidditch team, and he said that if he could, he would play on ours!”

David had a very relived look on his face. “Thank you!” he said to Harry. “I like watching quidditch, but I don’t really like playing it, and I’m not that good either.”

“You’re better then John was.” Zeb scoffed.

“That’s cause John was pure awful. And that he had to many detentions to go to practice, and to many demerits to play on a team.”

“How do you even do that?” Harry asked, amazed.

“You be John.” Diana deadpanned, and the entire group laughed.

 

Later, Harry was sitting on the chair from his desk and staring out his window. It was late at night, and Zeb was already asleep. Suddenly, Hedwig fluttered up to the window. Harry quickly unlocked it, and swung it open. She stepped onto his arm, and he shut the window most of the way, enough so that she could push it open by herself, but not enough that the cold ocean air could get in.

Hedwig had made it to the house only about two weeks before school started, and was tired from the long trip, but had still wanted to fly to school instead of getting locked into her hated cage. Harry glanced at the clock, and winced at the time it showed. He carefully stood up, and used his free arm to put the chair closer to the desk, then let Hedwig step onto it’s back. “Night, girl.” He whisperer, stroking her head, before climbing into bed. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 16

The next morning Harry woke to Zeb shaking his shoulder. He yawned, resisting the urge to burrow back down in his warm blankets and go back to sleep. "You turned off your alarm in your sleep." Zeb told him, when Harry looked at him questioningly.

"Yeah. I don't even know how I do that." Harry grimaced. "It's really annoying."

"I bet! I'd be terrified that I would do it and be late for something important!" Zeb exclaimed.

"So am I" Harry yawned, then slowly rolled out of bed, before he started gathering his things for the day. "So, do you have any idea was our class schedules will be like?" he asked.

"Yeah- just like every other year here. We're going to be rather different then ehat you are used to, though." Zeb grinned "And from what I've learned about the European way of schooling, and Hogwarts in particular, you are going to very relived."

"What?" Harry asked "Wait.. we still do have to take our OWLs, right?"

"Nope!" Zeb grinned. "of course, we do have our winter and end of the year finals, but there is no huge test, that you will base your entire future on. The tests are important, but not that important. It's a lot like muggle school, really. And I have to say- Ordinary Wizarding Level, and Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test, really?"

"I know- whoever created those names was awful at naming things. And I bet there is a lot worse out there, that we just don't know about." Harry snickered, then grabbed his backpack that held all of his books and things.

"Onward, to face the evil!" Zeb said theatrically, grabbing his own things. The room rang with their laughter as they walked out the door.

Harry and Zeb made their way down to the dining hall, where they found the rest of the group waiting for them, at the same table that they were at the night before. "You finally decided to join us." David grinned.

"Sorry, we were insulting the British's ability to name things." Zeb said flippantly.

"Like what?" Diana asked.

Harry smirked "Well, there's the OWLs and NEWTs- which stand for Ordinary Wizarding Level, and Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test, respectively. There are also the awful names I've heard. There was Almerick Sawbridge who defeated the largest river troll to have ever existed in Britain. There is also Havelock Sweeting who was a Magizoologist well-known for being an expert on unicorns."

"So he was a virgin his entire life?" Archer asked, sounding horrified.

"I'd assume so, yeah." Harry said, barely keeping a straight face. Izzy, who was sitting next to Archer, and across from him, was snickering.

"How do you know that?" Jessica asked.

"They both have chocolate frog cards- and the names are so weird that I just remembered it." Harry admitted.

"I probably would too." Jessica admitted "Because, really what mother names their child Almerick, without that child doomed to teasing their entire life?" The entire table laughed, getting glaring looks from other tables for being loud that early in the morning.

"In the mothers defense, little Almerick was born in 1602, I think, when weird names were apparently common."

"But it's still Almerick!" Percy protested, laughing. Harry was suddenly struck with how different this Percy was compared to Percy Weasley. The differences were more then the fact that Percy Newell was blonde, and Weasley a redhead(obviously). Harry had seen Newell laugh more in the last 24 hours then he had seen Weasley laugh in 4 years. Just because they had the same name didn't mean they were anything alike. In fact, Harry didn't really think they could be any more different.

Harry grabbed a strip of bacon of the platter sitting in the middle table, and munched on it, watching the group that he was suddenly a part of, accepting like he was never not there. It was a refreshing feeling.

Harry's first class was Defense, with Mr. Stevenson, the teacher who had shown him around earlier. However, his schedule gave him a bit of confusion. It had classes like History of magic, History of non-majs, basic science, and intro to algebra in it.

"We have muggle classes?" he asked Diana, who was walking with him.

"Yeah. You have different classes then the rest of us, because the school doesn't know where you are at in your muggle classes, and you need to be checked in your magic classes as well, as the British probably teach different stuff in different areas." she explained.

"Fun." Harry said sarcastically. "I'm expecting all of you to help me in the muggle subjects, though, as Hogwarts didn't teach them, so I haven't had to do anything with them since I was 10. However, I did spend a lot of time in the library as a kid, and I was always good with the sciences and some math. Unfortunately, that was elementary school stuff, and not high school level."

"Why?" Diana asked, horrified.

"Because the people in charge of magical Britain have this strange idea that, because they have magic, they are infinitely superior then the muggles." he said dryly. "Even if they don't know hat there are trains faster then steam engines exist. Or can pronounce electricity. Or know that there's been a man on the moon. Or any other recent non-maj event that almost everyone can name. No wonder there were so many witch trial victims!"

"Wow." Diana said slowly. That is horrifyingly sad."

"Yeah. That's magical Britain." Harry sighed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Yes, I know that I haven't updated in just under 3 months. And yes, i know i promised that this would come sooner to a few people a couple days ago. Just be glad it's up!
> 
> This is a list of all of the characters I introduced in the last chapter, just in case you forgot who they all were. While I'm on the subject, you'll notice that some of them don't have last names. If you want to help, and create some of that info for a character, I will appreciate it!
> 
> David Williams-
> 
> Zebulon Pike. (Zeb.)-
> 
> Archer Smith-
> 
> Percy Newell- blonde
> 
> Diana Tregrade- brunette
> 
> Izzy- blonde
> 
> Jessica-
> 
> Once again, thank you for reading, and I hope you liked it!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 17

Harry and Diana walked towards Defense, and she continued explaining the school system to him. “So, everyone is in the same level of magic classes, unless they are really, extremely bad at the subject and fail it. If you fail it, you have to take the summer school class.” She explained.

“Summer school class?” Harry asked.

“If you fail a class, you have to go to one of the schools in your school’s district, and re take the class. Our school is in District 5, and the schools in a district trade off who has to do the summer school.”

“Oh, ok.” Harry nodded. 

“Anyway, while the magic class you are in should be the same as your year, the muggle classes are different. The math class is by what level of math you are at. The science class is by what you are interested it- for example, after you do the biology, and Chemistry (which are required), there is anatomy, animal science, earth science AP Chemistry and AP Biology.”

“AP?” Harry questioned, confused at the random letters that had entered the list of classes.

“It stands for Advance Placement. The classes where the smart people or the people who are really desperate to get into colleges go. They are about 10 times harder then the normal classes. To get into AP Bio, you have to had an A or B in your whole year of normal bio.”

“That sounds..” Harry trailed off.

“People either think it’s amazing or awful.” Diana grinned.

“Are there AP’s for other classes?” Harry asked.

“Well, for math there is AP Calculus, and AP Calculus BC, and AP Statistics. There is also AP Economics, and AP American Government. Most AP classes are really small, though. That’s because there aren’t that many people willing to do as much extra work as the classes need to get a good grade and still pass the rest of your classes.”

“If there are so few people willing to take them, how do you all those classes?” Harry asked.

“Most of the time only a few of those classes are actually classes. The others are classes that you could take, but didn’t have enough people to make them a class, so they stay on the list for the next year, in case someone wants to take them.” Diana explained, as they ended their slow wander to the classroom by walking over to a door and walking in it.

The classroom looked like any other normal muggle classroom- other then one large detail- the posters of various spells and dangerous magical creatures scattered across the walls. Diana led him to a seat in the back of the classroom. “We don’t have assigned seats, but everyone tends to sit in the same general areas, though it differs with what people are in what classes.” 

Suddenly, then class got louder, and Harry glanced to the front of the room, noticing that Mr. Stevenson had arrived.

“Enough, enough. Just because you are louder doesn’t mean I wouldn’t teach.” He said, and several students snickered and groaned. “Now, I won’t bother to go over my rules- they are the same as last year, and if you miraculously forgot them over the summer, they are on the syllabus.” he told the class, passing out a light green paper. “Now, for my normal first day work- what did you learn about defense over the summer, and if you didn’t learn anything, why?” The entire class groaned and pulled out paper. Harry went to do the same, but was stopped by Mr. Stevenson, who had walked over with a stack of papers in his hand.

“Harry, as I have no idea where you are at, I want you to take this test. It is a copy of last years closing exam. Don’t worry, I don’t expect you to know everything, and it is simple bubble in answer format.” He said kindly.

“Okay.” Harry said, accepting the stack of papers, and glanced down at the first question:

What is NOT a reason a person could become an Obscurus?   
A) trauma associated with the use of magic   
B)internalized hatred of one’s own magic   
C)a conscious attempt to suppress your magic  
D) doing magic in front of Muggles

What? Harry thought. He had no idea what an Obscurus what, much less which choice was the true answer. At random he circled C, as he had tried to suppress his magic as a child. He then frowned, and circled D as well. Beside the word Obscurus he put a few question marks. He hoped that the entire test wasn’t like that, and was glad for the massive amount of studying that he had done during the Triwizard tournament. The next question delved back into very familiar territory.

What is necessary for a person to become a werewolf?  
A) a child of a werewolf with a human partner   
B) a werewolf is in human form and bites the victim   
C) to be bitten by a werewolf in their wolfish form at the time of the full moon  
D)two werewolves mate at the full moon, in their animal forms 

The rest of the test continued that way, with questions he knew, interspersed with ones he had no idea how to solve. By the time the bell rang to end class, he was finishing up the last question. He handed the test to Mr. Stevenson, and walked over to Diana who was waiting for him.

“How do you think you did?” She asked.

“I did awful on some, and amazing on others. Hopefully more of the latter then the former, but..” he trailed of and shrugged.

She shrugged back. “What is your next class?” 

“Into to Algebra.” He told her, after a quick glance at his schedule. 

“What room?” She asked 

“Ummm. 123.” 

“Cool! I have Geometry in 124, so I can walk you over there.” she grinned

“You were going to leave me?” Harry asked.

She rolled her eyes “The classrooms and halls are numbered- it isn’t all that hard. Besides, what would that dragon you fought think if it learned you couldn’t find your way around a building?” she grinned

“Hey leave the dragon out of this!” he complained as he followed her down a set of stairs to doom aka muggle math. The only response he got was her laughter as she walked into her classroom, leaving him to walk into the opposite door alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, this has been up on fanfiction.net for ages, but I just realized that I hadn’t put it here, so here you go! I should post the newest chapter within a couple of days.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

 

The second Harry walked into the doors he had to suppress a wince. The entire classroom was filled with 11 and 12 year olds. He was by far the oldest kid, at 15. All of the kids were staring at him, but he chose to ignore it, and walked over to the teacher.

 

“Mr. Potter, I assume?” the teacher said “My name is Mr. Sanford, and I am the intro to algebra teacher. Do you think you might be able to go up a class level in math, if I gave you the exit exam?”

 

“I think so.” Harry said hesitantly, then looked at the first and second years staring at him. “I hope so.”

 

Harry say a glimmer of a smile on the teacher’s lips “I probably would too.” Mr. Stanford said conspiratorially. He then handed Harry another stack of papers. Harry had a sudden feeling that that would be what the rest of his classes would be like. Tests, tests, and more tests. Harry really didn’t blame the teachers, though. They had no real idea of what his education was like, muggle or magic. Harry was just glad that they probably hadn’t looked at his muggle records, or he would probably be in classes a lot lower then this one. Harry hated the fact that he had been forced to do awfully in school. If he hadn’t been a wizard, the Dursley’s and their insistence that he do worse then Dudley would of completely ruined his entire life. He would have no future, no prospects. He would be a homeless nobody, begging to survive, and probably stealing, as well. His skills at stealing food could easily transitioned into actual thievery. Instead, he was a rich, powerful wizard, with a career in anything he wanted, as long as he did decent in his new school. And the decent part was now the thing he was terrified about. He thought that he would probably do decent in the magic classes if defense was any indication, but suddenly wasn’t too sure about the non-magic. 

He had always been good in science, so he would probably one or two classes behind the rest of his age group, but he hoped to do the summer sessions, and make that up, if possible. Math was the same, but the rest of the classes were going to be the hard ones. The only history he knew was from the little kid history textbooks, and he knew almost nothing of recent events, and the fact that he was in a different country, which puts emphasis of different events and viewpoints, meant that history was going to be very hard for him. For that matter Magical history was going to be hard, too. Binns had been ruining history for kids for decades, if not longer, which meant that almost no one had gotten a good grade for their NEWTS in just as long.

 

It was that sort of stuff that pissed Harry off the most about Britain. It was the easy fixable stuff. It wouldn’t of bee all that hard for Dumbledore to get Binns declared incompetent, and hire a new, better, alive, teacher. It wouldn’t of been all that hard to start raising their standards to meet the rest of the world’s. As the head of the IWC, Dumbledore should know that. He still did nothing. Now, Harry was sure that he would find some things he didn’t like about America, but they would probably pale in comparison to Britain.

 

As Harry finished his woolgathering, Mr. Sanford finished rummaging in his desk. “Here it is!” he said, relieved. “Harry, this is a copy of last year’s Intro to Algebra class exam. You can go sit in the back and ignore me while you complete it. Good luck!” the teacher smiled.

 

“Thanks.”Harry grimaced, and followed the teacher’s instructions. An hour of pure mental torture later, Harry turned in the test. He just hoped he passed. Even one more level up would help. He sighed as he left the classroom.

 

“What’s up?” a voice chirped from his left. He turned to face it. It was Diana.

 

“I hope I can manage to get up a level.” he said with a wry smile. “I don’t want to be in a class with kids so much younger then me.”

 

“Yeah, that would suck.” Diana admitted, although a grin lurked around her lips. Harry didn’t bother to ask what was funny. “Well, what’s your next class?”

 

“Transfiguration. Do you have it too?”

 

“No, but my class is near, so I can walk you. Now, come on, or I’ll be late.” She grinned, and they strolled off deeper into the building.

 

The rest of the day continued like that, with Harry walking to his classes and lunch with Diana or one of the others, and being confronted with tests while all of the teachers gave some variance of first day work-the stuff you can miss without having a single problem. For the magic classes he could have his new friends tell him what had happened, too. He was on his own with the muggle ones, unfortunately. By the time dinner came, harry felt like his head was stuffed full, and he hadn’t even been to half of his classes yet!

 

After dinner Mrs. Jennings walked up to him with another woman following her. “Hello Harry” Ms. Jennings greeted.

“Hello ma’am” Harry said.

“Harry, this is the music teacher, Ms. Stanlee. She had a couple of questions for you.”

“Hi, Harry. I just wanted to know how much music you had before you signed up for my class. Right now, you are in the first of the beginners classes, but have you ever played before?”

“Yes, I played cello for two years before I went to Hogwarts, and I started back up this summer.”

“Do you think you are at the same level that you were before you went to Hogwarts?” the music teacher asked.

“Yeah. probably.” 

“Ok, I’ll move you up to the 3rd class then. Until we get your schedule settled out, I want you to come to the first class, all right?” 

“Of course.” Harry said.

“I will see you in class then, Mr. Potter.” she said, and walked away.

Harry made his way to the dorm, where Hedwig hooted at his arrival, her attention mostly focused on the owl sitting in a tree outside with a letter in it’s talons. Harry pushed the window open, and Amber’s barn owl fluttered in. Here in America, most people sent mail, especially long distance, through other means, such as the muggle post, or email, which was the most popular, as it was instantaneous. Owls and other birds were mostly kept as mostly free ranging pets that were occasionally asked to deliver something. 

Harry looked at the letter, then at his bed. His decision made, he crawled into bed, propping the letter on his nightstand so he could read it the next day.


End file.
